A Pinoy Blog About Nothing

We’re big fans of the Fables books in this household so we happily picked up the spin-off series focusing on the character of chief mischief maker Jack. Now on its 7th issue, it’s beginning to hit its stride.

Fables had the benefit of having dozens of different characters to play around with, story-wise. Jack was initially placed in a gulag/Guantanamo Bay type of prison for the fable-folk called the Golden Bough (wink wink) Retirement Village. Since engineering the break-out of most of its inmates, Jack’s been on the run from the librarians who seek to make the world forget about these fables.

Issues #6 & 7 focuses on Jack’s adventures outside the Village. Issue#6 focuses on the story of Jack as Jack Frost and how he seduced the Winter Queen into giving up her power to Jack.

I’m not revealing anything to spoil anyone who’d like to read this issue because it’s the first of a new story-arc. Issue # 7 shifts its focus to Jack in Las Vegas. Writer Bill Willingham writes the captions in the first person view and attributes the shift in the story to Jack’s laid-back nature. And it works. Unlike in Fables, where the stories are played out straight, the tone of Jack’s book reflect his to-heck-with-rules attitude.

Jack learned that he lost all the money he lost as a Hollywood studio executive and heads for the neon lights of Vegas with fellow escapee from the Golden Bough. They try to win Jack’s money back by asking the various inanimate objects to help them in their cause. It wasn’t long before they got attention of the wrong people and they get thrown out of the casinos. At the end of the book we see a woman who might be the Queen of Hearts (of Alice in Wonderland) eating some poor guys brains out.

As I mentioned earlier, the series is beginning to get interesting. For one, Jack’s devil may care attitude makes him more of an anti-hero than the rest of the righteous Fables of the original book. This allows Jack to get away with the most underhanded and unexpected actions this side of DC comic universe. Think of it as Lobo or Wolverine with the muscles and claws. Jacks gets away from dire situations using his brain and charm rather than fragging or snikting someone.

But more than the ‘bad boy’ attitude of the book is the small nods here and there for various folk tales and children stories. If you want to see Humpty Dumpty kicking ass, this book’s for you.